Everett Alvarez Jr.

Everett Alvarez Jr. (23 December 1937-) was a US Navy aviator who became the first US pilot to be downed and detained during the Vietnam War during Operation Pierce Arrow in 1964.

Biography
Everett Alvarez Jr. was born in Salinas, California in 1937, the grandson of Mexican immigrants. He went to Santa Clara University on scholarship before joining the US Navy in 1960, serving as an aviator during Operation Pierce Arrow in 1964. He endured eight years and six months of captivity and torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese, who refused to treat him as a prisoner due to the lack of an official declaration of war from the United States. He was repeatedly beaten and tortured at the Hanoi Hilton, but he was released on 12 February 1973 as a part of the first US prisoners-of-war to be repatriated. He retired from the Navy in 1980 with the rank of Commander, and he served as Deputy Director of the Peace Corps from 1981 to 1982, Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration from 1982 to 1988 (leading the Republican National Convention in the Pledge of Allegiance in 1984), and as a member of the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences from 1988 to 2009. Alvarez also befriended fellow Vietnam POW John McCain and defended him against Donald Trump's insults in 2016.